


Do You Think This Is A Game?

by decadent_mousse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 09:03:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4257471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a boring day at Hermann's GameStop, and then Newt walks back into his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do You Think This Is A Game?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cypress_tree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cypress_tree/gifts).



> This was inspired by an au post on Tumblr, but I can't remember specifically which one. XD [cypress_tree](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cypress_tree/pseuds/cypress_tree) expressed interest in a Gamestop AU, and this was born!
> 
> Thank you, [patster223](https://archiveofourown.org/users/patster223/pseuds/patster223), for the fic title! <3

Hermann leaned against the counter and sighed, more out of boredom than any actual weariness.  The store had been open for four hours and the only activity it had seen so far was Hermann milling about and sorting through the aftermath of two children rifling through the Wii section the day before.  Hermann generally preferred organizing things around the store far more than having to deal with customers – something his coworkers were keen to tease him about – but there was even less to do on that front than usual.  For there to be a mess to sort through, there would have to be customers, and things had been far quieter in the store than usual.

It was no secret that the Gamestop that had opened in the mall earlier in the year was twice the size of his store, and had the added allure of being right next to the food court every teenager in town frequented.  He’d heard a couple of his coworkers whispering about the possibility of their store closing, but he had no reason to think it was anything other than idle gossip.  They still did enough business to get by.  

Just not today, apparently.  He could only rifle through rows of games so many times before it became clear they didn’t need any further attention.  

At half past three the phone rang.  

“Thank you for calling Gamestop,” he answered, with all the enthusiasm of a man who’d been staring at the same Assassin’s Creed preorder advertisement in the window for the past forty-five minutes.

“You really need to work on that, buddy,” Tendo’s voice crackled.  “You sound like you’re answering the phone at a funeral home.”

“I may as well be.”

“That dead over there, huh?  You don’t need me to come in, then?”

“I wouldn’t bother.”

“Are you sure?”  

“Yes.  Tell Alison I said hello.”

“She’s not– How did you–”  Tendo’s voice became muffled briefly.  “Hermann says hi.”

“Hi, Hermann!” Alison’s voice was distant, but unmistakable.

Tendo coughed, and Hermann shrugged, even though he knew he couldn’t see it.  What his coworkers chose to do during their off hours was their business, and what they chose to do with _each other_ was doubly so.  

About fifteen minutes after he got off the phone with Tendo, the phone rang again – a customer annoyed that the game they had preordered had been delayed.  Hermann had politely explained that there was nothing he or his manager could personally do to make the game come out any sooner, and the customer had huffed angrily and hung up.  He’d thought maybe that was a sign that business was about to pick up – he was more than willing to deal with more irate customers if it meant _some_ activity – but no.

Another hour trickled by.  He wondered if this was how archaeologists would find him, years from now, hunched over the counter with moss growing all over him and everything else in the store.  A fine example of the evils of ancient early 2000 era capitalism.  It was almost enough to make him wish he’d taken that job his father had offered him.  Almost.

As if some higher power had decided to spare Hermann another two hours of long, dragging _nothing_ , a man who didn’t look much younger than Hermann walked in alongside a young girl.  

Hermann cleared his throat and stood up a bit straighter.  “Hello.”

The customer smiled at him warmly.  “Hey, dude.  How’s it going?”

He had been scolded in the past by his manager for not being friendly and enthusiastic enough towards the customers, so he debated whether or not he should give an honest answer.  Before he had a chance to decide, the other man chuckled.

“That good, huh?”

“It’s… been a slow day.”

“Lucky for me.  I usually go to the GameStop at the mall, but it’s pretty wild over there this time of year.  No game’s worth wading through that.”  He paused.  “That’s… not sacrilegious, is it?  Saying that in here?  I’m not going to get struck by lightning or anything, right?”

“I doubt it,” Hermann replied dryly.  “That hasn’t happened here in years.”

The other man laughed and walked over to the “Coming Soon” display, while the young girl accompanying him darted over to the PS3 section and quietly browsed.

“Is there something I can help you find?” Hermann asked.

“Uh, actually…”  The man wandered towards the counter in a way that was probably supposed to look nonchalant, but mostly looked like he was about to trip over his own feet. As he drew close, he squinted.  “Hey, don’t I know you?”

Hermann raised an eyebrow, briefly wondering if this was some strange ploy to wheedle him for a discount.  Come to think of it, he did look somewhat familiar, though Hermann couldn’t quite put a name to the face.  Before he had much time to think about it, the other man snapped his fingers.

“Hey, that’s it!  We went to school together didn’t we?”

Hermann blinked at him.  “Did we?”

“Yeah, dude!  We had science class together one year!”

Suddenly, it came back to him.  “We were lab partners.”

He beamed at Hermann.  “Yeah!”

“You blew up our chemistry project.”

His grin faltered and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.  “Uh, yeah.  Yeah, that was me.”

Hermann narrowed his eyes.  “Newton.”

“Newt,” Newton corrected, “but hey, at least I left some kind of impression, right?”

Hermann was tempted to point out that it hadn’t been a particularly _good_ impression, but before he had a chance, Newt leaned in conspiratorially.  

He lowered his voice and glanced over his shoulder to make sure Mako wasn’t paying attention.  “Look, her birthday’s coming up, and I was hoping to pre-order something for her, sneaky-like y’know?”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, uh… crap, I can’t remember the name of it.  It’s that fighting game with the robots?  It’s coming out soon, right?”

“I don’t know which one you mean offhand.  It will be somewhat difficult to find without a title.”

Newton looked a bit embarrassed.  “Yeah, I know.  I haven’t really kept up with it.  It’s not really my genre, I’m more of a ‘Mario Kart with a side of Skyrim’ kinda guy.”

Hermann snorted loudly before he could stop himself.

“Wow, excuse _you_.  What about you?  Do you even _play_ anything?”  

He narrowed his eyes and tried and failed not to look as offended as he felt.  “I’ll have you know I do.”

“Oh, yeah?  What?”

Before it occurred to him that he didn’t need to explain or justify his gaming habits to a customer – and a highly annoying one, at that – he was already responding.  “Indie games, mainly.  Probably nothing you’ve played.”

Newt snickered.  “Figures.  Anything else would be too mainstream for you, I bet.”

That wasn’t actually true, but Hermann was done with this conversation.  If Newton wanted to assume he was some breed of hipster gamer that loathed the mainstream, let him.  He didn’t care.

“Oh come on, dude, don’t get mad.”

“I am not _mad_ , I’m… disgruntled.  You’re only partially responsible.”

The other man leaned on the counter.  “Only partially, huh?  Guess I’m off my game today.”

“You _are_ incredibly annoying, however, so there is that.”

“Are you this charming and friendly with all your customers?”

“No, just you.”  The other man grinned and Hermann finally relented and said, “I suppose I can bring up a list of upcoming releases, and you can look at it and see if any of them sound familiar?”

“That’d be awesome,” Newt beamed.  “You’re a rockstar, dude.”

Hermann felt his cheeks heat slightly as he put on his reading glasses and sought out the list.  

Just as he was about to swivel the monitor to let Newton see it, however, Mako came walking towards them.  Newton looked briefly panicked, but recovered quickly.

“Hey, kiddo, find anything you like?”

“No.”

“Really?  Nothing?”

She shook her head, disappointment evident on her face.

“Wow, too bad.  This trip sure is a bust.”  Newt sighed theatrically.  “Guess we should go drown our sorrows in ice cream.”

Hermann rolled his eyes.  Newton’s guise of innocence was so over the top it was more likely to make the girl _more_ suspicious of his behavior rather than _less_.  

“As for the item we discussed…  It will be available–” He caught himself and glanced at Mako, who was looking at him curiously.  If she was looking forward to the game as much as Newton surmised, then surely she would recognize the release date.  “Er, at the time I mentioned.”

Not that he was much better, apparently.

Newt nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, “Yeah!  Great!  I’ll be here to pick you up.”  His eyes widened, “It.  Uh.  I’ll be here to pick _it_ up.”

Hermann mouth went dry.  “Alright.”

He grinned as he walked backwards towards the door.  “See ya around, Hermann.”

Then he crashed into the used game bargain bin.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who are curious: in this AU Newt's 19, Hermann's 20, and Mako is 8.


End file.
